Drew was born and raised in Forest Gate, London. His mother worked for a local authority and his father, Paul Ballance, played in a punk rock band called the Warm Jets during the 1970s.[2] He was five months old when his father walked out on the family, and six years old when his father "disappeared completely".[3] Growing up, Drew felt outcast from much of society, stating, "We weren't working class but we weren't middle class, we were in the void in-between. I've always felt like a social outcast."[4]

Drew explained his stage name during an appearance on USA Today in 2007, stating, "The whole reason for calling myself Plan B was that I was doing this sweet-boy Justin Timberlake shit, but I never felt comfortable... when I started rapping, it was easier for me to feel comfortable."[8]

With a supporting role in the film Adulthood (2008), Plan B recorded three songs for the film’s soundtrack – "End in the Streets", "On It 08" with Adam Deacon and "I Need Love" featuring Raleigh Ritchie. Plan B also featured on the Chase & Status single "Pieces", which topped the UK Dance Chart in 2008 and peaked at number seventy on the UK Singles Chart.[11] In 2009, Plan B recorded "Shifty" with Riz MC and Sway,[9] which was lifted from the soundtrack to Eran Creevy’s film Shifty (2009), starring Riz Ahmed (Riz MC) and Daniel Mays. Also in 2009, Plan B played Noel Winters in Harry Brown, and achieved his first Top ten hit single with "End Credits",[11] another collaboration with Chase & Status which featured in the soundtrack for Harry Brown. '''

Plan B's second album and film The Defamation of Strickland Banks was released on 12 April 2010. The lead single from the album, "Stay Too Long", reached number nine on the UK Singles Chart.[11] The next single from the album, "Love Goes Down", was accompanied by an official music video featuring Andy Crane, Paul Young, Abbey M. Butler, Vicky McClure and Kaya Scodelario, which had its own premiere on 16 November 2010.[13]

His forthcoming new album, called The Ballad of Belmarsh, is a hip-hop laden "series of events" that depicts the story of Plan B's alter-ego, Strickland Banks. He has said that he recognises the fact that the upcoming hip-hop album will probably not have the same appeal or be as successful as his previous soul album, which has sold over 500,000 copies, but he is unconcerned by this.

"I know The Ballad of Belmarsh is not going to work commercially, I know radio ain't going to play it but I'm still going to put it out there because I love it. It's a piece of art.", he said. "It's probably going to sell about 100,000 copies – no more. But I'm cool with that."

On May 18th 2017 Plan B released his first single in 5 years titled "In The Name Of Man" and announced he had been in the studio recording an album via Twitter. His newest album, Heaven Before All Hell Breaks Loose, will be released April 13, 2018. He said in an interview that this album will be less hip-hop orientated then his first two albums and stated "....because I feel that I’m not being honest with myself if I’m living the high life and I’m trying to rap about the other side of things". [17] Plan B had said that he took time off from the music industry to focus on fatherhood, and also to connect with friends and family he says he felt alienated from after the release of Ill Manors. "I felt spiritually lost at the end of Ill Manors. I hadn’t seen my family, really, since 2009. Certain friendships were just completely dissolving. I’d always felt like I was fighting to be taken seriously, fighting for recognition, and suddenly I had it all, and I thought, ‘Shit, I’ve got nothing to fight for.'" [18]

After previously appearing in Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard's short film Walking After Acconci (Redirected Approaches) in 2005,[19] Ben Drew's first major film role was as a supporting character (Dabs) in Noel Clarke's Adulthood (2008).[20] His song "Kidz" was previously included in the soundtrack to Kidulthood (2006), which led to Drew being cast in the sequel.

Drew expressed an interest in working in film early in his music career. In an interview about Who Needs Actions When You Got Words, he said: "We're still promoting this album and I've started work on the next one, but I'm really getting into film at the moment. I'm writing this script, and I really want to find some time to focus on it, I really feel that's what I'm destined to be doing".[22]

In 2008, Ben Drew directed his first short film Michelle,[23] which starred Adam Deacon and Skrein. He also directed the music video for "Pieces" (his collaboration with Chase & Status).

Drew began production on his first full-length feature film, Ill Manors, in September 2010. Speaking in March 2010 to UK soul-writer Pete Lewis (Deputy Editor of the award-winning Blues & Soul), Drew described 'Ill Manors': "It's a hip hop, music-based feature film which has six short stories that all kinda mix together to make one BIG story – and each mini-story will be represented by a different hip hop track. It'll all be narrated by me, and it'll actually be the reverse of 'The Defamation Of Strickland Banks' – in that with 'Ill Manors', the film will come out first and the soundtrack will come afterwards. And again the soundtrack will be a film for the blind, in that you'll be able to listen to it and it'll tell you the story of the film."[24]

In June 2011 Hewlett-Packard signed up Plan B as part of their advertising campaign for their Beats Audio laptops,[25][26] using a short film exclusive to UK cinemas which showed Plan B with his band in a recording studio de-constructing the song "She Said", which had been a UK chart success a year earlier.[27] Subsequently, in its 24 June issue, the British satirical magazine Private Eye made reference to the ad in its Ad Nauseam column,[28] voicing the magazine's view that Plan B's involvement in the commercial seemed to be at odds with his comments at the Ivor Novello Awards regarding music promotion, where he criticised what "…has to go on in order to get your music to get played to the masses" (in reference to his own US stage tour just prior to the awards).[29]

In July 2011 Bulmer's cider announced that they had signed up Plan B to help sell their product,[30] releasing an advert which depicted a live performance by Plan B.[31]